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nfotxnI have to admit I really liked the single "Somebody Told Me". It adhears to all the conventions of modern dance rock that Straight Boys Who Don't Dance have liberated themselves enough to make. Judging by the rest of the record the person who made that song great is probably not in the band.
So the rest of the record is weak. Minus the the feigned synthesizer and barely-audible-as-not-to-be-too-queer vocoder ("Smile Like You Mean It") we're left with a real shell of a band. And I mean weak. How powerlessly must you emote to rip off the dis-interested, love lorne and gothy sounds of the 1980s? That's a really hard style to feign.
This is my biggest beef with guitar pop music these days. Everyone is borrowing style not for musical interest but for marketability. Add a Juno 106 or Mini Moog to your band because you like to play it. Not because people "like totally think synthesizers are cheesey and cool these days". Fans who will stick with your band are more intuitive than that. It's something I learned in music is that when you're not making that 700% effort people can tell. It's written on your face and present on your record.
Add to that trite lyrics that allude to teen sex and smoking that will surely legitimize the lifestyles of the young and indulged who spend the big bucks: their parents money.
I suspect the Killers are just another band here to take your money and run. Keep them at your record shop next to Jet or The Stills under Pre-Packed Retro Thrills of the Early 00s. Please don't give them your money.
So the rest of the record is weak. Minus the the feigned synthesizer and barely-audible-as-not-to-be-too-queer vocoder ("Smile Like You Mean It") we're left with a real shell of a band. And I mean weak. How powerlessly must you emote to rip off the dis-interested, love lorne and gothy sounds of the 1980s? That's a really hard style to feign.
This is my biggest beef with guitar pop music these days. Everyone is borrowing style not for musical interest but for marketability. Add a Juno 106 or Mini Moog to your band because you like to play it. Not because people "like totally think synthesizers are cheesey and cool these days". Fans who will stick with your band are more intuitive than that. It's something I learned in music is that when you're not making that 700% effort people can tell. It's written on your face and present on your record.
Add to that trite lyrics that allude to teen sex and smoking that will surely legitimize the lifestyles of the young and indulged who spend the big bucks: their parents money.
I suspect the Killers are just another band here to take your money and run. Keep them at your record shop next to Jet or The Stills under Pre-Packed Retro Thrills of the Early 00s. Please don't give them your money.
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no subject
Date: 2004-09-23 12:13 pm (UTC)Funny you had mentioned Jet. I first saw them on SNL and thought, the songs are OK, generic but not *bad*. The thing that struck me is that they don't "get it". They had a look, moves, and they were playing "rock music" but they don't rock, no soul.
I actually saw them at the Filmore here in SF a few months back. I went because Sloan was opening, who were great. But Jet pulled the old trick of not allowing Sloan to use the bass bins during thier set, so it sounded a little thin. Of course, Jet comes on and its HUGE and full sounding yet Sloan still destroyed them.
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Date: 2004-09-23 12:23 pm (UTC)It reminds me of teaching violin really. There were always these 2nd generation kids (usually Asian) who would just technically blow you away. But would also play just so robotically and cold. Of course because their parents wanted them to take hold of every opportunity they could get with the threat of death.
I see Jet and the like in a similar situation. Their big label parents are making them practice AC/DC songs until their fingers bleed. Mostly because there is no Big Thing anymore to be monopolized by anyone in particular. So pop music is all barrel scraping and rehashing.
So sorrowful.
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Date: 2004-09-23 12:48 pm (UTC)Funny though how, in the 60's there were just loads and loads of 45's being produced all over the world. There were "regional hits" for bands because radio DJ's actually had a personality. The kids get excited and go to see the bands. Making a lot of bands marginally famous hence, "Nuggets Box Set". Most of those bands were supposed to be "nameless, faceless and disposable"
Its kind of come full circle as far as mass production. A band can make songs easily available. The shit thing is that the public only gets excited when the worldwide monolith gives it value. The same one that owns the radio, the clubs, newspapers, the billboards.
I am a musician. If you look on your social order chart, I think we're like 2 below "dogs"
no subject
Date: 2004-09-23 01:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-23 02:21 pm (UTC)Is it just me, or is more and more of the audience at any given live show just there to be seen on a night out, more than to be there to hear any of the acts actually performing?
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Date: 2004-09-23 02:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-24 07:31 am (UTC)grrr.
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Date: 2004-09-24 09:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-24 01:46 pm (UTC)From the Details Department.
Date: 2004-09-24 10:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-23 12:18 pm (UTC)Is that a new icon? I didn't realize how cute you look. [/shameless flirting off]
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Date: 2004-09-23 12:27 pm (UTC)Why yes, that is a new icon! I'm so flattered you noticed.
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Date: 2004-09-23 12:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-23 01:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-23 01:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-23 03:36 pm (UTC)Ok, I still know but I love to hear interpretations.
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Date: 2004-09-23 09:22 pm (UTC)hmm...
Date: 2004-09-24 09:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-23 12:41 pm (UTC)Yeah. The Killers suck. But some of their songs are catchy. Plus, they have a song with my name in the title.
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Date: 2004-09-23 12:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-23 12:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-23 01:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-23 01:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-23 01:38 pm (UTC)and now without the benefit of their bank accounts, you have just set yourself up to be referred to as "Ass Biscuit Hilton"
=)
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Date: 2004-09-23 01:41 pm (UTC)Boy, I hope Brodie doesn't put a hit out on me for putting all this obnoxious Hilton-centric babble in his post.
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Date: 2004-09-23 01:51 pm (UTC)I think we cheapened it enough for him to deal with
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Date: 2004-09-23 02:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-23 07:17 pm (UTC)Oh, come now, Brodie. I am sure you get bitchy about other things besides Paris.
I like the glasses you are sporting in that icon. Are they oval or round? I used to have a similar pair before I jumped onto the "big black nerd glasses" wave.
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Date: 2004-09-23 02:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-23 03:35 pm (UTC)Cultures inevitably move on.
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Date: 2004-09-23 03:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-23 05:57 pm (UTC)Okay, so it's slow guitar pop. Elvis Costello wrote slow songs too.
Classical music may be formal, but that doesn't mean that there isn't classical music that uses new forms. I'm getting tangled up mentally in definitions of form and formality and what makes classical music classical music, but Arvo Pärt definitely writes classical music even if it doesn't sound much like Mozart. For that matter, most rock music uses a form that was hashed out many decades ago, but Converge doesn't sound much like Dashboard Confessional. Just because there's a form doesn't mean there isn't plenty of room within and around the form.
What's your definition of artist?
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Date: 2004-09-23 06:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-24 09:10 am (UTC)Ahem.
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Date: 2004-09-23 06:52 pm (UTC)Whereas there is that artistic je ne sais quois is present with the orchestra grandeur of Arvo Pärt or quaint folk sing-alongs of the Decemberists. That is missing with Dashboard Confessional, The Stills, The Killers etc. It's an irksome insincerity and to my ears is undeniably present.
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Date: 2004-09-24 09:13 am (UTC)Yes, yes, and yes.
Date: 2004-09-23 04:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-23 05:06 pm (UTC)Clinic has a new album ... is it good ENOUGH? discuss
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Date: 2004-09-23 07:07 pm (UTC)They sounded good live but they had little personality, and the singer kinda looked a little confused at how to act in front of so many people. I don't hear them as being insincere or anything, but the songs do sound hashed together. The lyrics especially. A bunch of catchphrases that are strung together with like no meaning (that whole "I got soul but I'm not a soldier" thing).
Franz Ferdinand were better, but the songs are so weak.
I think there can still be plenty of good guitar pop but we are at a moment where a lot of it is so rehashed (jet, interpol, the thrills) or dull (fountains of wayne, horrible live by the way), or just catch phrases with no real songs (killers, franz ferdinand, the thrills).
mmmmmmbop dude =)
Date: 2004-09-24 11:19 am (UTC)hmmm... the Franz Ferdinand album was pretty great I thought. Its pretty rare nowdays that an album so hyped actually gets through my jaded fuckness. Of the bands that are riding that new wave / pop rock thing, them and The Faint seem to be able to do it right.
I'm only barely on top of the latest wave of radio bands. I heard the Thrills and thought they sounded like the Beach Boys after the Pogues took them out drinking. It was odd. Who and the hell would write a song about Big Sur?
I loved the first 2 Fountains of Wayne albums but found the new one just fucking trite. I have seen them twice (actually I think I saw their first ever live show) and yeah, they just stand there. At Slims a few years back, they played the two albums they had out back to back, no talking, no encore. I kind of dug it because there was no BS.
What I have heard of the new Camper Van Bethoven was REALLY REALLY great. I was fully prepared to hate it.
Re: mmmmmmbop dude =)
Date: 2004-09-24 12:20 pm (UTC)The new Faint record is a suprising improvement. The vocal style is tweaked a fair bit and none of the songs seem to drag at all. Which I thought was a bit of a problem on Danse Macabre and Blank-Wave Arcade.
Re: mmmmmmbop dude =)
Date: 2004-09-24 02:18 pm (UTC)Franz Ferdinand is one of those cds that I'll check out like next year again. I like "take me out" and "michael" but the rest didn't click. They were really good live. Lots of sass.
FOW was annoying because when I saw them they just stood there looking annoyed. It was weird.
I am looking forward to hearing the new CVB.
no subject
Date: 2004-09-24 02:48 am (UTC)